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The Pro: Note the change of iconography (Cameron as Henry V, ‘jousting’, ‘crusade’, ‘portcullis’ – albeit with a Union Flag which didn’t exist in those days – good old BBC) and tone.

Sopel: But isn’t the real eurosceptic thing to do, which is what David Cameron and George Osborne will do is… to say ‘we are fighting for Britain’s interests within Europe and trying to get the best deal possible…”

After decades of reviling ‘eurosceptics’ the BBC is now carrying Cameron’s torch that it’s okay to be a eurosceptic and that we’re no longer ‘fruitcakes, nutjobs and Little Englanders’ (even if you were Scottish, Welsh or Irish). They’re still one step behind the rest of us who know full well that there is no chance of renegotiation within the terms of the Lisbon Treaty, or any of the treaties our governments have signed on our behalf.

I’m unsure who the two commentators were because I didn’t watch the programme. One is called Sarah, who smirked as Farage answered a question, and the other, I think (going by his voice and, if it is him, he’s put on a bit of weight and grown a beard), is James Somebody-or-Other, an LBC radio phone-in host who is so pompous and arrogant that he never lets others finish their sentences and always interprets their views – “What you’re saying is…” “What you mean is…”).

“People have no idea of the scale of money British banks are owed by European banks. If the European banks start going it will be our banks that are on the line, our government on the line.”

Oh, I think we do have an idea; we do know. We know the scale involved and we know you will make us pay for it. We also know that our taxes shouldn’t be used to prop up bankers or governments. Nothing should be too big to fail. The views of this failed and bitter politician are irrelevant.

Government has become far too big and unwieldy. The government’s proposal to cut 10% of MPs doesn’t go far enough – that’s only 50ish MPs lost (maths isn’t their strong point). You only have to look at the House during PMQs to see them fighting chunky haunch by well-fed jowl for a seat on the benches. They’re all tucked in very cosily and those who fail to find a place must elbow for room around the Speaker’s Chair or in the doorway, shoulder to chippy shoulder. Personally, I think it’s become so rotten and corrupt that I’d like a clean break – slash it back to one MP for one County and re-build it from there. I don’t think that proposition is any more ludicrous than the system we now have in place.

Mr Cameron also condemned the “ignorance” of English people about Scots and Scotland and the “embarrassing” English insensitivity on matters ranging from the acceptability of Scottish banknotes to “the inevitable aggressive Glaswegian drunk” in TV programmes.“If I become the prime minister of the United Kingdom, I’ll never, never take Scotland for granted,” Mr Cameron said.He also pledged to take on “sour Little Englanders” who wanted rid of Scotland. “I’ll fight them all the way,” he said.

Well, at least the Scots weren’t taken in by him.

By the way, I keep meaning to find the link but … Voting rights in the EU are determined by the population count. Nod/wink.

UPDATE: Here’s Heseltine talking about the great “European adventure”. with an insert about the events of Black Wednesday:

It might come as a surprise, then, after such turmoil in the financial world and the ugly riots in the streets of Athens, to realise that in the eyes of those Eurocrats who inhabit the Brussels bubble, things are going pretty well.

That’s because the present euro crisis is an inevitable consequence of a deliberate choice. For them it is all part of a greater long-term project: a ‘beneficial crisis’ that will help hasten their ultimate goal of a federal European state.

The Legal Aid, Sentencing & Punishment of Offenders Bill will be debated next month and promises tougher measures against convicts.

£1m benefit fraudster & illegal immigrant can’t be deported back to Nigeria because of his Human Rights.

LOOK HOW FAR WE’VE COME
Not very, if truth be told. The post above was two years ago and I’m still blogging about the same things but with ‘updates’.

I’m sorry but I’m not as patient as I was two years ago. And it’s not just the wars; it’s the economy, the inter-changeable feckless governments, the encroaching State of the EU

The EU doesn’t recognise England as a country – only as an area of Regions – so don’t be surprised at the anti-English and anti-Scottish rhetoric in the media. Divide and conquer; subvert, infiltrate. And haven’t they done a good job of breaking up the Union? I wonder how much Alec Salmond’s SNP has been promised in EU loans and grants. We know how much the BBC gets – check it out – it’s millions per year in loans and grants. The BBC is not only licence-payer funded, it’s EU-funded as well. Switch it off!

I’d rather the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland could be as it was, but life moves on and the UK is irrevocably changed. Blair’s government put paid to that with the Devolution Bill. Labour were elected in May 1997 and four months later in September the referendum was held, in Scotland only. What they did, in their arrogance, was isolate England completely. That Northern Ireland should have its Stormont Assembly, that Wales should have increased powers for its Assembly and for Scotland to have increased powers for its Assembly while England isn’t recognised at all is absolutely unforgivable.

This is why England should fight against the status quo. England, of all the countries making up the United Kingdom, has been most betrayed in this wholesale sell-out to a federal European superstate. The latest betrayal is by Cameron who tells us that this major constitutional issue about the break-up of the Union will be decided by Scots voters in a Scottish referendum only.

That’s an insult. Do the opinions of the Welsh, Northern Irish and English not matter at all in this? We’re left with no option but to demand control over our own policies, our own government, our own country and I do believe that, when the time comes, the English will step up to the plate and face down the EU and our own elected government of the day. If it’s good enough for the Scots, it’s good enough for the English.

My only reservation in all this is that it plays into the hands of the almighty EU. Localism and the Big Society isn’t a Cameron initiative, it’s EU-derived. Devolution and regionalisation is a part of a bigger picture and we must be watchful.

My very first post, my first dipping of a toe into the waters of blogging, was:

“A multitude of causes unknown to former times are now acting with a combined force to blunt the discriminating powers of the mind, and unfitting it for all voluntary exertion to reduce it to a state of almost savage torpor.“

Edgar, who was one of the first to comment, had it right, “These are the things, GV, that people will look back on and think to themselves, ‘How did I not see it all coming?”

And people will look back and wonder. Then they’ll wonder why the media never reported fully about governance and the EU; they’ll wonder why pages were devoted to Cheryl &Cole or Charlene & Theron; they’ll wonder why the media let our Westminster Assembly accuse each other of petty Party politicking when they were actually consensual on the over-arching topic that mattered most: that of who governs the country. Then they’ll understand why they were portrayed as indolent and feckless obese couch potatoes watching daytime tv and eating deep-fried Mars bars while foreigners took their jobs. Then, perhaps if it’s not too late, they’ll be out on the streets.

There is never any joy or satisfaction in saying ‘I told you so’; there’s never self-satisfied contentment when things one has predicted will go wrong, do go wrong; there’s just regret and a greater determination to set things right.

Let’s end with some words I’ve also quoted before. The man was right and this paragraph needs shouting from hilltops, from beacon to beacon, up and down the land until everyone gets the message:

“If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”

Like this:

LOOK HOW FAR WE’VE COMENot very, if truth be told. The post above was two years ago and I’m still blogging about the same things but with ‘updates’.

I’m sorry but I’m not as patient as I was. And it’s not just the wars; it’s the economy, the inter-changeable feckless governments, the encroaching State of the EU

The EU doesn’t recognise England as a country – only as an area of Regions – so don’t be surprised at the anti-English and anti-Scottish rhetoric in the media. Divide and conquer; subvert, infiltrate. And haven’t they done a good job of breaking up the Union? I wonder how much Alec Salmond’s SNP has been promised in EU loans and grants. We know how much the BBC gets – check it out – it’s millions per year in loans and grants. The BBC is not only licence-payer funded, it’s EU-funded as well. Switch it off!

I’d rather the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland could be as it was, but life moves on and the UK is irrevocably changed. Blair’s government put paid to that with the Devolution Bill. Labour were elected in May 1997 and four months later in September the referendum was held, in Scotland only. What they did, in their arrogance, was isolate England completely. That Northern Ireland should have its Stormont Assembly, that Wales should have increased powers for its Assembly and for Scotland to have increased powers for its Assembly while England isn’t recognised at all is absolutely unforgivable.

This is why England should fight against the status quo. England, of all the countries making up the United Kingdom, has been most betrayed in this wholesale sell-out to a federal European superstate. The latest betrayal is by Cameron who tells us that this major constitutional issue about the break-up of the Union will be decided by Scots voters in a Scottish referendum only.

That’s an insult. Do the opinions of the Welsh, Northern Irish and English not matter at all in this? We’re left with no option but to demand control over our own policies, our own government, our own country and I do believe that, when the time comes, the English will step up to the plate and face down the EU and our own elected government of the day. If it’s good enough for the Scots, it’s good enough for the English.

My only reservation in all this is that it plays into the hands of the almighty EU. Localism and the Big Society isn’t a Cameron initiative, it’s EU-derived. Devolution and regionalisation is a part of a bigger picture and we must be watchful.

My very first post, my first dipping of a toe into the waters of blogging, was:

“A multitude of causes unknown to former times are now acting with a combined force to blunt the discriminating powers of the mind, and unfitting it for all voluntary exertion to reduce it to a state of almost savage torpor.“

Edgar, who was one of the first to comment, had it right, “These are the things, GV, that people will look back on and think to themselves, ‘How did I not see it all coming?“

And people will look back and wonder. Then they’ll wonder why the media never reported fully about governance and the EU; they’ll wonder why pages were devoted to Cheryl &Cole or Charlene & Theron; they’ll wonder why the media let our Westminster Assembly accuse each other of petty Party politicking when they were actually consensual on the over-arching topic that mattered most: that of who governs the country. Then they’ll understand why they were portrayed as indolent and feckless obese couch potatoes watching daytime tv and eating deep-fried Mars bars while foreigners took their jobs. Then, perhaps if it’s not too late, they’ll be out on the streets.

There is never any joy or satisfaction in saying ‘I told you so’; there’s never self-satisfied contentment when things one has predicted will go wrong, do go wrong; there’s just regret and a greater determination to set things right.

Let’s end with some words I’ve also quoted before. The man was right and this paragraph needs shouting from hilltops, from beacon to beacon, up and down the land until everyone gets the message:

“If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”

Not bad, but he should spend more time polishing his technique because it’s not a match for this:

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect…Henry V, Act 3, Scene 1

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."